10 New iPhone Games You Need to Play this Week

As Elvis Costello once sang, welcome to the working week. 2016 has arrived with a bang. New games are back! But which new iPhone and iPad games will help you start your year right?

Our top picks for the first week of 2016 should provide more than enough gameplay to keep you smiling as you settle back into your routine.

Candy Crush Jelly Saga

Need a new twist on an old favorite? The third Candy Crush Saga has launched, and this time introduces a sticky, icky jelly that needs to be cleared from every board. Learn more by reading our hands-on from last month’s early release.

TMNT Portal Power

There’s no shortage of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games on the App Store, but that hasn’t stopped Nickelodeon from trying to give old school gamers the one thing they’ve been craving for decades: a brand new TMNT brawler.

Basket Fall

Let’s face it: you’re never going to dunk a basketball in real life. At least not without a rope. Basket Fall runs with that idea, giving players the chance to sink baskets by dangling the ball above the net, then cutting the rope that holds it at just the right moment. There are plenty of crazy skins to unlock, so expect Basket Fall to keep you busy for a while.

BattleHand

There are plenty of RPGs on mobile, including those with card-collecting elements — so what makes BraveHand different? For starters, it’s brought to you by a team of industry veterans who were key players in the creation of Fable. In other words, they know a thing or two about great RPGs.

Monster Roller

Boomzap are quickly becoming the kings of cool puzzle RPG mashups. This past summer they released a sublime mix of Minesweeper and dungeon crawling with Super Awesome Quest. Now they’re tackling the world of slots and monster collecting.

Surfingers

Of all the games to capture the microgame crown after Flappy Bird, Timberman is the one that sticks out in my mind the most. Now its developer is back, and this time they want you to surf some choppy waves.

Namaste Space Buffalo

Defenders 2

If you haven’t played a tower defense game in awhile (and, honestly, we haven’t), Defenders 2 should be well worth a look. It’s from Nival, the publisher behind Etherlords and King’s Bounty: Legions, and the visuals really seem to pop in this one.

Halfpipe Hero

Simple, high score driven fare? Sure. But as someone who grew up on a healthy mix of California Games and Skate or Die (two influences the developer cites), it would be hard to skip this one on our weekly downloads list.

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